The Avs are starting to ramp up talks with several unsigned players, including, my NHL sources say, with at least a couple of the team’s potential unrestricted free agents.
Those potential UFAs are: David Jones, Jay McClement, Cody McLeod, Shane O’Brien and Matt Hunwick.
I can not say with 100-percent certainly who is NOT being negotiated with at all. So, I’m not going to say either way right now who I think they are, but I do know the Avs are talking with them and other unsigned possible RFAs already, which is a good sign for them. The Avs can sometimes wait to the last minute to do these kinds of things, which not always desirable results (Matt Hendricks, Ian Laperriere, etc.). They often do not talk to anybody who goes the UFA route.

Interestingly, one player the Avs have yet to start talking turkey on a new contract yet with is Ryan O’Reilly. My sources say there has yet to be contact between them and his agent, Mark Guy. But I wouldn’t worry about it. He’ll be signed at some point. He’s not going anywhere.

Of the UFAs, I think the Avs are definitely interested in bringing McClement back, along with O’Brien. Jones? Unclear still what’s going on there. I think the Avs want to talk and see what it would take, but I make no hard and fast predictions on him coming back right now.

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.